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Don't try to do this by yourself! If you're set on lightening floors, talk to a professional first. Some wood does not take very well to bleach- and no matter what wood it is, bleach takes a heavy toll on durability. The results can be really pretty, but it could also destroy a nice floor.

Have someone look at your specific floors before you commit!

You're going to want to do a test patch first, depending on what your floor is made out of and what its been treated with in the past it could actually turn a darker color, like say black.

I'm assuming triple bleaching means to bleach three times. This gets done with wooden decking alot. You'd have to sand off the finish and then apply a wash of bleach. When done outdoors most people use a power washer. I'm not sure of the cleanest (and safest) way to do this indoors.

Another option might be to refinish your floors with a "pickled" looking stain. as that would lighten them.

My guess is that this is not a DIY - There's going to be an entire refinishing process involved.

Call a professional.

I wouldn't know how to do this indoors without creating a bleach smell that would stay with you for months to come. I'm sure the professionals have some chemical or something that works much better than the old fashioned way.

It DOES make for a beautiful floor though!

If I had to guess, I would say that "triple bleaching" refers to successive applications of oxalic acid, sodium hypochlorite (chlorine bleach), and a peroxide bleach. This isn't something that you're going to want to try with a floor that has already been laid.

Hockthebourgeois is correct, it can greatly affect the durability of the wood. You are almost certain to damage your floors if you attempt this yourself. Please, please don't do this to 90 year old wood floors.

If installing new and you want light colored wood floors go with maple, birch, or ash. Let oak look like oak.

Thanks for the responses. I, too, had figured that this was not a DIY job, and I am not certain whether we even have oak floors and whether all the floors would be original to the house. In fact, I know that in the rooms that were added on in the 1990s wouldn't have floors dating back to the 1920s. We seem to have about 3 or 4 different colors of wood floors in our house and I guess I thought that maybe doing this process would even them all out and make them all look alike without having the expense of actually replacing our floors.

If we do replace our floors, I would prefer to go bamboo. Anyone have any experience with bamboo floors? The only thing that I have heard that we would want to go to an expert and bamboo floors can be expensive because the cheap stuff doesn't last or scuffs easily or something.

Hi Susan,

This is pretty easy to do. We can help you get the project done. Lt Colored flooring shows less dust and can hide scratching. For more information visit the site below:

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In the past 75 years, Rode Bros., a firm that installs fine hardwood flooring, has created floors in The White House, the Getty Museum, Christies in Beverly Hills, and the Ronald Reagan Library, among other places. Now Rode, which has showrooms in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Honolulu, has a showroom here, at 300 W. Grand Ave. (by appointment only; call 773-398-8758).

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